Old Masters Meet Russian Revolutions - WordPress.com...Old Masters Meet Russian Revolutions Kersti...

Old Masters Meet Russian RevolutionsKersti Tainio, MA, PhD Student, University of Helsinki

Old Master paintings in the Sinebrychoff Art Museum that came from Russia to Finland as a consequence of the Russian Revolutions are the subject of Kersti Tainio’s research undertaken during her recent internship at the Finnish National Gallery

Foreword

The political turmoil in Russia has unexpectedly given us a chance to rescue some of the treasures threatened with being swept away by the whirlwind of the revolution, but again, the opportunity has not been fully exploited. Some works of art have ended up here through private initiative but there have been no systematic purchases, although the owners of celebrated art collections would have sold their old Flemish and Italian works rather than see them being smashed or plundered by the Russian utopians. Now many of these works have gone to England and America.1

This is what the art dealer Gösta Stenman wrote in 1919 after he had brought dozens of Old Master paintings from revolutionary Russia to Finland. In this article I shed light on the period of time between the two Russian revolutions in 1917 when there were a few Finnish people actively buying art in the chaotic capital of Russia. I will show, case by case, how this extraordinary situation affected the art collection of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum.

Provenance research is an important part of museum practice, as it may clarify or confirm attributions and dating, or even reveal the original commissioner of an artwork or help to identify a portrayed person. The subject I studied during my internship has not been systematically researched, although there are informative museum catalogues, one of which actually raised my interest in the first place.2 Provenance research is most typically carried out in connection with forthcoming exhibitions, and that was the case with the painting Young woman with a glass of wine, holding a letter in her hand, by Gerard ter Borch. The former Chief Curator of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Marja Supinen, made an effort in the 1990s to tease out its convoluted provenance. The painting found its way to the museum collection in the early 1920s,

1 ’De politiska omvälvningarna i Ryssland ha plötsligt skänkt oss en möjlighet att rädda en del av de skatter stormfloden hotat att sopa bort, men även nu har tillfället icke utnytjats. Visserligen har en del verk på privat initiativ funnit vägen till oss, men ett planmässigt förvärv har icke ägt rum. Och dock ha ägarna till berömda samlingar, hällre än de sett sina gamla holländare och italienare förstöras eller rövas av de ryska världsförbättrarna, – försålt sina skatter. En stor del av dessa verk har gått till England och Amerika.’ Gammal konst. Stenmans konstsalongs publikationer II. Helsingfors: Frenckellska Tryckeri-Aktiebolaget, 1919. My translation.

2 Supinen, Marja. The Ter Borchs Meet Again. Helsinki: The Museum of Foreign Art Sinebrychoff. The Finnish National Gallery, 1995; Supinen, Marja. The Fine Arts Academy of Finland, Sinebrychoff Art Museum: Foreign Schools: Summary Catalogue 1: Paintings. Helsinki: Suomen taideakatemia, 1988; Keltanen, Minerva, ed. Art & Atmosphere. Helsinki: Sinebrychoff Art Museum, 2014.

Issue No. 3/2018

Old Masters Meet Russian Revolutions // Kersti Tainio---

FNG Research Issue No. 3/2018. Publisher: Finnish National Gallery, Kaivokatu 2, FI-00100 Helsinki, FINLAND.© All rights reserved by the author and the publisher. Originally published in https://research.fng.fi

2

when a Russian citizen brought it to Helsinki from Petrograd3 and sold it to the museum. The painting had ended up in St. Petersburg in the aftermath of the French Revolution when Prince Alexander Bezborodko (1746–99) purchased it in 1795. Over 100 years later, the painting left Petrograd, ironically enough, as a consequence of the Russian Revolution.4

In order to understand the scale of my research I first made a list of the paintings with Russian provenance. (By Russian provenance I mean works of art that have at some point come from Russia to Finland.) This is a wide category, I realised, and there are at least two minor collections that form a part of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum’s collection – the Klinckowström and von Haartman collections5 – that may contain several works of art with Russian provenance. The other group of paintings connected to Russia comprises works by Russian artists. However, I excluded these parts of the collection, and concentrated on a certain type of provenance directly related to the Russian Revolutions. This is where the

3 St. Petersburg became Petrograd in 1914 when, following the declaration of war between Germany and Russia, the former name was considered to be too German. In 1924 Petrograd was again renamed, remaining as Leningrad until 1991.

4 Supinen 1995, 34–35, 43.5 The art collection of Privy Councillor Otto Wilhelm Klinckowström (1778–1850) contains

28 paintings, while Surgeon and gynaecologist Carl von Haartman (1819–88) owned over 30 paintings, most of which are attributed to Dutch Masters. The provenances of the two collections are poorly documented, but both collectors had close contacts and a social life in St. Petersburg. For more information about Klinckowström, see Hilpinen, Saara. Aristokraatin maine: Otto Wilhelm Klinckowströmin (1778–1850) skandaalit. Pro gradu -tutkielma, Suomen ja Pohjoismaiden historia. Filosofian, historian, kulttuurin ja taiteiden tutkimuksen laitos, Helsingin yliopisto, 2014. For more about von Haartman, see: Kartio, Kai. ‘Carl von Haartman – Physician and Collector of Fine Art.’ In The Beer King of Helsinki, the Czarina’s Personal Physician and Dutch Old Masters. Helsinki: Museum of Foreign Art Sinebrychoff, 1994.

Gerard ter Borch, Young Woman with a Glass of Wine, Holding a Letter in her Hand, c. 1665, oil on canvas, 38cm x 34cmFinnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Hannu Pakarinen & Henri Tuomi

https://research.fng.fi



3

historical and political events come into the picture, and where the often damned geopolitical position of Finland is the key element.

I had some assumptions in my mind when I started, for example, that the paintings in question were acquired mainly from emigrants who crossed the Finnish border in their masses during the Russian Civil War, 1918–21. This is what certainly happened too, and Stenman recalled in his memoires that he had purchased a precious painting from a host of a noble Russian who had no money to pay his rent.6 However, if we look at the collection of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, a rather different picture emerges. The major actors are Finnish art dealers who travelled repeatedly to Petrograd and who had personal contacts with Russian collectors. In this article I concentrate on these people, namely Gösta Stenman and Torsten Stjernschantz, and their contacts and purchases in Petrograd.

Fragmented Sources, and Language Barriers

The goal of the research internship programme at the Finnish National Gallery is to study its art and archive collections. I concentrated on the paintings in the collection of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum and gathered information that was available on the FNG database and the museum’s archive. Armed with this information I began to trace relevant sources. Besides materials in the FNG archive collections and library, I used newspapers and magazines and studied materials in the Slavonic Library (at the National Library of Finland) and the Archive of Parliament. In brief, working on the chosen subject has involved piecing together fragments of information.

I also took some time to search relevant Russian publications, because many Russian collectors who are unknown in Finland are well known in Russia or have been studied there to some extent. I tried to draw a rough sketch of the Russian collectors related to the paintings I discuss here. In general, my goal was to get over cultural and language barriers, which I see as a necessary step in examining Old Masters as objects that are at the same time lasting and movable. They often have a long and international history that can be traced only with the help of a pile of dictionaries and the support of time-consuming language studies.

Between the Russian Revolutions

In 1919 Stenman gave the impression that the Bolsheviks’ rise to power on 25 October 19177 opened a new horizon for art dealers. Judging from the archival materials and newspapers of the time it seems nevertheless likely that Finnish dealers, Stenman among others, were most active before this momentous event. The paintings I discuss in this article need to be seen in the context of a wartime which included shortages in food supplies, riots and strikes.

The February Revolution in 1917, which broke out in the middle of the First World War, led to the abdication of the unpopular Emperor Nicholas II, and brought the Provisional Government into power. The Provisional Government was meant to be provisional and govern only until the Constituent Assembly could be elected. However, discontent with the inefficiency of the Provisional Government rose rapidly, and there were constant strikes, armed demonstrations, mass desertions from the army, violence on the streets, and an attempted coup. In October 1917 the Bolsheviks took power under Lenin’s lead. To summarise the much disputed consequences of the February Revolution into three sentences is cursory, of course, but what is important in this context is the way in which it affected art collections, and collectors seemingly turned art into money under extremely unpredictable conditions.

6 Stenman, Gösta. Mästare och imitatörer. Helsingfors: Schildts, 1937, 41–43.7 According to the Julian calendar, until February 1918 the Russian Julian calendar was 13 days

behind the Western Gregorian calendar.




4

Stenman, Stjernschantz, and who else?

The art dealer Gösta Stenman (1888–1947) had a multifaceted, dynamic, and risky career. He bought and sold modern art as well as Old Master paintings, and patronised artists. At the end of the 1920s he closed his business in Helsinki and moved to Stockholm.8 In the early stages of his career, during the turbulent years of the First World War, Stenman was actively widening his business in Petrograd. He was forced to give up his plans to set up a new art gallery there because of the revolutions in 1917.9 Stenman did not stay idle in these new circumstances but instead started to buy Old Masters.

Later he complained about the inactivity of Finnish institutes responsible for collecting art10 during the critical period of time when it was possible to bring Old Masters to Finland from a turbulent Petrograd. In other words, all the old Flemish, Dutch, and Italian masters that had only a while ago formed a part of the ‘Russian’ cultural heritage were ready to be transformed into ‘Finnish’ cultural heritage. In Stenman’s opinion this opportunity should have raised interest, because Finland, no doubt, lacked Old Masters. It probably raised interest too, because Gustaf Strengell, the Director of the Ateneum Art Collections in Helsinki, actually travelled to Petrograd in the autumn of 1917 in order to buy old paintings there, but did not succeed.11 Stenman wrote that the only people who were active were private individuals. Who did he mean?

Torsten Stjernschantz (1882–1953), who became the Director of the Ateneum Art Collections in 1919, made his living as an antique dealer before his long career at the Ateneum. He started up an antique shop Oy Antica Ab in 1916 and ran it until he took up the post of Director three years later.12 At least four of the Old Masters now in the collection of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum actually came from Russia in 1917–18 via Antica, and there are also some works of art in other Finnish museum collections that travelled through the same firm. Maxim Gorky wrote about the flood of new antique shops in Scandinavia in the aftermath of the revolution. These shops advertised their goods by referring to their origins in Russian imperial palaces. Gorky wrote that there were quite a few shops of this kind in Stockholm and Copenhagen.13 The idea behind Stjernschantz’s Antica may have been similar. Strengell wrote in Hufvudstadsbladet that Stjernschantz had – over and over again – hurried to Petrograd to make acquisitions. According to Aune Lindström, Stjernschantz had studied in St. Petersburg,14 which means that he knew the city and possibly already even had contacts there.

The amount of people acquiring valuables from Russia during 1917 and the Civil War cannot be estimated without further research. One example of the phenomenon is the large painting Erminia and the Shepherds, attributed to Stefano Torelli (1712–84), which was bought by the Sinebrychoff Art Museum from a private collection in 1993. The

8 Hjelm, Camilla. Modernismens förespråkare: Gösta Stenman och hans konstsalong. Helsingfors: Statens konstmuseum, Centralarkivet för bildkonst, 2009, passim.

9 Hjelm 2009, 52–55.10 Stenman’s vague expression ‘planmässigt förvärv’ leaves plenty of room for interpretation but he

probably referred to the Finnish Art Society and the Antell Delegation. Gammal konst. Stenmans konstsalongs publikationer II, 1919.

11 However, he was not successful but was advised by a Russian artist to go on looking for paintings in England or the Netherlands where it was possible, according to him, to find paintings at an affordable price. The Antell Delegation decided to turn to Finnish art historian Tancred Borenius who was permanently living in London. The Minutes of the Antell Delegation 6.11.1917 § 12. File 14. Archive of Parliament.

12 Lindström, Aune. Ateneumin taidemuseo 1863–1963. Helsinki, 1963, 91. 13 Vasil’eva, Olga, and Knyševskij, Pavel. Krasnye konkistadory. Soratnik: Moskva, 1994, 70–71.14 Lindström 1963, 91.

Gösta Stenman. Atelier Aino, Helsinki. Gösta Stenman Archive. Archive Collections, Finnish National GalleryPhoto: Finnish National Gallery

Torsten Stjernschantz photographed by Hugo Simberg in 1905. Hugo Simberg Archive. Archive Collections, Finnish National Gallery.Photo: Finnish National Gallery




5

Finnish family who had owned the painting for decades had preserved the receipt that was written in Russian on 20 October 1917. The painting was bought from K. A. Aleksandrov, who ran an antique shop in Petrograd on Bassejnaâ 10.15 He sold ‘the old painting from the French school’16 to Mr S. S. Rodinovič for 9,000 roubles.17

It would not take long for the painting to cross the Finnish border. The person who sold the painting to the museum in the 1990s recalled that it came to the family in 1918.18 Attribution is one of the greatest potential pitfalls in dealing with Old Masters and can easily go astray. At the time of the acquisition in the 1990s the painting was attributed to Stefano Torelli19 but how and when had it become Italian, when it had been bought as a French painting in 1917? The attribution of Torelli has been questioned, and is still in progress.

15 The street in the central part of St. Petersburg has been called Ulica Nekrasova since 1918.16 ‘Картина старинная Французской школы’. Receipt from the antique shop K. A. Aleksandrov,

20 October 1917. File S-1993-283. The Scientific Archive of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum. Finnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum = SIFF.

17 Receipt from the antique shop K. A. Aleksandrov, 20 October 1917. File S-1993-283, SIFF.18 Acquisition Proposal 1/1993, File S-1993-283, SIFF.19 The Italian-born Torelli was invited to Russia in 1762 and he worked in St. Petersburg for the rest of

his life.

Attributed to Stefano Torelli, Erminia and the Shepherds, undated, oil on canvas, 192cm x 268cmFinnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Hannu Pakarinen & Henri Tuomi




6

Honthorst + Meyburgh + de Braij + Helt-Stockade = Anonymous?

In acquiring Old Masters, Stenman’s most important contact in St. Petersburg seems to have been the artist and collector Osip Èmmanuilovič Braz (1873–1936).20 There is a document written by Braz in the Stenman archive (Archive Collections FNG). The note, which looks like a receipt, is dated 13 October 1917, and it lists eight paintings Braz had sold to Stenman for a total of 53,300 roubles. One of the paintings is ‘Portrait d’une famille, atribué a Jan de Bray’.21 This is the painting that now hangs in the Sinebrychoff Art Museum – though not under the name of Jan de Braij (1626/27–97).22

If the attribution of Erminia and the Shepherds is challenging, so then is that of the Portrait of a Family, which has had several attributions, some of which may have served art dealers wishing to get a good price. When it was in the possession of Braz it was given at least two, possibly three, attributions.23 In the catalogue24 of the unrealised exhibition Starye gody25 (Bygone Years) in 1908 it was attributed to Bartholomeus Meyburgh (1624/25–1708/09).26

Along with the two above-mentioned names the artist Gerad van Honthorst (1592–1656) also appears in the catalogues of Sinebrychoff Art Museum. It could have been the attribution by which Braz bought the painting in the first place but there is no proof for that. Stenman donated the painting to the Finnish Art Society

20 The spelling of Osip Braz’s name varies in different sources: Iosif, Osip Josef, Joseph. He signed a letter to Stenman in 1917 as ‘Joseph Braz’ which was seemingly the name he himself used in international contexts. The slightly confusing remarks (J. Praz, O. E. Praz) in catalogues (Supinen 1988; Keltanen 2014) of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum most likely have their roots in the Russian and the westernised version of the same name.

21 Note by Osip Èmmanuilovič Braz addressed to Gösta Stenman 13 October 1917. File 7. Gösta Stenman Archive. Archive Collections, FNG.

22 The time frame of Stenman’s acquisition has not been known until now. The note in the Stenman Archive confirms that Stenman had bought the painting among other pieces by 13 October 1917.

23 The Sinebrychoff Art Museum’s former Chief Curator Marja Supinen visited the RKD in The Hague in the 1990s in order to research the painting in question. Her hand-written notes led me to study the Russian art magazine Starye gody in the Slavonic Library, National Library of Finland. File Helt-Stockade, SIFF.

24 The catalogue is brief and gives no measurements, let alone images. Starye gody: Katalog vystavki kartin: noâbr-dekabr 1908 (Appendix to the issue of Starye gody oktâbr-dekabr); nr. 390, page 72.

25 The intended exhibition included close to 500 pieces of European and Russian art primarily from private collections, and the exhibition was organised by the editorial board of the art magazine Starye gody (1907–16). The magazine published articles about art and antiquities, the collecting and protecting of cultural heritage, and enjoyed great popularity. The exhibition was already installed in October 1908 but not opened to the public. Due to a personal conflict, the exhibition was cancelled, but the articles and catalogues were published anyway. Bannikov, A. P.’Nesostoâvšaâsâ vystavka’. Panorama iskusstv 1984, vol. 7, 288–289.

26 Braz is not known to have owned more than one family portrait attributed to a Dutch master. Bannikov, A. P. ‘Osip Èmil’evič Braz i ego sobranie starinnoj živopisi’. Pamâtniki kul’tury. Novye otkrytiâ. Ežegodnik. Moskva: Nauka, 2002, 390.

Unknown Dutch artist, Portrait of a Family, mid-17th century onwards, oil on canvas, 157cm x 208cmGösta and Bertha Stenman Donation Collection, Finnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Hannu Pakarinen & Henri Tuomi




7

in 1935 under the name Nicolaes van Helt-Stockade (1614–69). Stenman’s attribution was rejected by the researcher Rudi Ekkart in 2009.27 To put it briefly, ever-changing attributions mean that the same painting shows up in different documents under several names. A topic as general as ‘Family portrait’, does not make it any easier to pinpoint a particular work. Large gaps in provenance in turn may raise questions about the authenticity of a work.

Who was Braz?

Stenman described Braz decades later as a mentor from whom he learned a lot, and as one of the best ‘all-round connoisseurs’ he had met.28 Stenman writes:

Braz’s home was full of old paintings, and they were real things. It was puzzling that Braz was super modern as a painter but did not want a single modern artwork on his wall. They are museum quality, he explained to me, but the Old Masters are the only bearable paintings at the home of a modern artist. I could understand him so well. (– –) The only thing Braz thought about was art. And the mouth speaks what the heart is full of: in Russian, German, French. I absorbed everything. What Braz had experienced in 15 years, I learned in 15 weeks. (– –) Every now and then my friend Josef was ready to sell a painting to me. The price was never the lowest possible (– –) but I paid without hesitation because I felt I had to pay for the all the lessons I had from him.29

27 Ekkart, Rudi. ‘Dutch and Flemish portraits in Finland’. Codart Courant 2009, vol. 18, p. 10.28 Eino Krohn quotes Stenman in his book Upptäckare i konstens värld: Gösta Stenman (1970)

but unfortunately gives no reference to the source. Krohn, Eino. Upptäckare i konstens värld: Gösta Stenman. Helsingfors: Centraltryckeriet, 1970, 63–64.

29 ‘Det brazka hemmet var fyllt med idel gamla tavlor och det var verkliga tavlor. Det verkade förbryllande att Braz som ultramodern målare ej hade en enda modern målning på sina väggar. Det förklarade Braz med att de var bra på muséer men de gamla målningarna det enda uthärdliga hos en modern konstnär. Jag kunde så väl förstå honom. (– –). Braz tänkte bara på konst, och varav hjärtat var fullt därav talade munnen i ett på ryska, tyska och franska. Jag absorberade allt. Vad Braz erfarit på femton år fick jag veta under lika många veckor. (– –) Då och då ville vännen Josef sälja en tavla åt mig. Priset var ej det allra lägsta tänkbara, (– –). Jag köpte utan att blinka märkbart, ty något fick jag lov att betala för den ändlösa undervisningen som jag sög in som en svamp.’ Krohn 1970, 63–64. My translation.

Fragment of the label on the stretcher of Portrait of a Family, which was attached for the exhibition ‘Starye gody’ (Bygone Years), 1908. Photo: Finnish National Gallery, Conservation Department / Ari Tanhuanpää




8

‘Every now and then’ seems to have been an understatement, because Stenman bought several works from Braz, some of which are documented either in the exhibition catalogue of 1919, or in the receipt Braz wrote to Stenman in 1917, or in both sources. All in all, Stenman must have bought around ten pieces from Braz, which is quite a considerable part of Braz’s collection. A. P. Bannikov gives an overall view of Braz’s collection, listing 34 works, of which all but 4 are foreign art.30 The reconstruction of Braz’s collection is based on artworks listed in the above-discussed exhibition catalogue Starye gody, and in later catalogues of the State Hermitage Museum. However, most of the paintings Braz sold to Stenman in 1917 are not listed by Bannikov, which means that the number of works in Braz’s collection would have been more than 34 pieces, before 1917.

Braz was born in Odessa and began his art studies in the city. Stenman’s reference to Braz’s versatile language skills highlights his cosmopolitan lifestyle. Braz studied in Munich and Paris, as well as the Netherlands in the 1890s. He finished his studies in the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Braz made his name as a portraitist after he had finished his best known work, a portrait of the playright Anton Chekhov (1897–98). In 1907 Braz returned to Paris where he worked for the next few years. He was strongly influenced by the new artistic currents, and his fresh impressions can be seen in the works he made in Finland in 1915–17.31 Braz was one of the founders of the art movement Mir Iskusstva and took part in the activities of several other art associations. He became an academician in 1914.32

As a collector Braz’s career started at the beginning of the 20th century. Besides the Dutch art that was closest to his heart, he collected Italian, French and German masters. He restored some paintings by Chardin, and also worked in the State Hermitage. He collected both in Russia and abroad, and art historian Nikolaj Nikolaevič Wrangel, in a letter to his father, Nikolaj Egorovič Wrangel, gave a vivid picture of a ‘shopping day’ with Braz in Paris in 1909. Referring to the letter, Bannikov writes that both men wandered for a whole day from one antique shop to another, and Braz bought some small but splendid Dutch works that were very cheap there at the time.33

At the end of the 1920s Braz left the Soviet Union for good, and his collection was transferred from his sealed flat into the State Hermitage Museum and the State Russian Museum. As Bannikov has stated, it is unclear what happened to Braz during the 1920s.34 He is known to have resisted the nationalisation of private property35, and he was arrested in 1924. He was sent to prisons, the Solovki prison camp, and then exiled to Novgorod.36 During the hard years he also lost both of his sons. In 1928 he emigrated and spent the last years of his life in Paris, where he made his living mainly as an antique dealer and even started to collect Old Masters again.37

30 Bannikov 2002, 388–391.31 There are at least a couple of works Braz painted in Finland, but I have not been able to find out for

how long and in which part(s) of the country he visited. Without speculating too much, the Karelian Isthmus was a popular place among Russians, and there were many summer villas there that were owned by people permanently living in St. Petersburg.

32 Severûhin, D. Â. and Lejkind, O. L. Hudožniki Russkoj Èmigracii 1917–1941. Bibliografičeskij slovar’. Peterburg: Izdatel’stvo Černyševa, 1994, 100–101; Bannikov 2002, 388–389.

33 Bannikov 2002, 388.34 Bannikov 2002, 389.35 The nationalisation of private property followed the nationalisation of the property of the church

and the abrogation of the right of inheritance in 1918. Semyonova, Natalya, and Iljine, Nicolas. Selling Russia’s Treasures: The Soviet Trade in Nationalized Art 1917–1938. New York, London: Abbeville Press Publishers, 2013, 15–16.

36 Bannikov 2002, 389; Severûhin & Lejkind 1994, 102–103.37 Severûhin & Lejkind 1994, 102–103; Bannikov A. P., and Sapožnikov C. A. Sobirateli i hraniteli

prekrasnogo. Ènciklopedičeskij slovar’ rossijskih kollekcionerov ot Petra I do Nikolaâ II 1700–1918 gg. Moskva: Centpoligraf, 2007, 66; Obituary to Braz by A. N. Benois in Posledniâ novosti / Les dernieres nouvelles 18 November 1936.




9

Stenman’s exhibition

Let us return to Stenman. He held a large exhibition in Helsinki in 1919, presenting 72 Old Master paintings he had acquired from Russia. A richly illustrated exhibition catalogue is a valuable source.38 But what happened to all these paintings? Quite a few ended up in the Ostrobothnian Museum in Vaasa, some in private collections, but the rest of the collection may have travelled further. Only one of the exhibited paintings remains in the collection of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum.

Art historian Johan Jakob Tikkanen wrote an article ‘Dutch Art in the 17th Century’ (Den holländska konsten på sextonhundratalet) that was appended to Stenman’s catalogue and he apparently bought the painting Virgin, Child, and Donors, by an unknown master, from the exhibition. The painting resurfaced in the Bukowski auction house in Stockholm as late as in the 1990s.39 It actually originated from Paul Delaroff’s collection, which is another important Russian private collection and the subject to which I will now turn.

38 There are two pieces of it in the Finnish National Gallery Library. In the catalogue Stenman even gave provenances when they were known. When the provenance was not clear he either gave the approximate time of his own purchase, typically ‘bought in St. Petersburg in autumn 1917’, or acted like a hard-boiled art dealer: ‘belonged to a highly aristocratic family / princely family / one of the best collections in Russia’ and so on.

39 Inventory number S-1999-81 in the Artwork Database of FNG. Conservators Maija Santala and Jan Förster carried out the basic research on this painting after its acquisition, and the results have been summarised in the database where I had access during my internship.

Unknown artist, Virgin, Child, and Donors, 1533, oil on canvas, 94cm x 141cmFinnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum Photo: Finnish National Gallery, Conservation Department / Ari Tanhuanpää




10

Red-headed Satyr

The name of the Russian collector Pavel Viktorovič Delarov40 (1852–1913) appears in archival documents in the Finnish National Gallery, and in various museum catalogues because there are art works from his collection in Finnish museums. However, his background and even a brief biography are difficult to track, because his collection has not been properly studied.41 A State Councillor, Delaroff was a lawyer and made his career in the Ministry of Transport.42 He lived in Pavlovsk, and after his death the major part of his enormous collection was put up for sale in Paris in 1914. Along with old European art, he collected graphics, sculpture, bronze and porcelain. According to art historian Nikolaj Nikolajevič Wrangel, Delaroff created his collection by browsing antique shops in St. Petersburg, as well as abroad.43

Delaroff is known to have collected ‘with modest capital but with unbelievable energy and discernment’.44 In many sources Delaroff is depicted as a deeply cultivated man and great connoisseur who developed his collection over several decades.45 According to Alexandr Nikolaevič Benois46 he did not look like a cultivated connoisseur, and the unconventional way in which Delaroff had organised his collection in his house, in addition to his drinking habits, astonished Benois: ‘He was a short, robust man with a big red beard and a bunch of red hair in the middle of his high forehead that all made him look like a Satyr from the Antique world.’47 Although the details of Delaroff’s life remain unclear, one thing seems incontrovertible: he was quite a character.

The break-up of Delaroff’s enormous collection in 1914 caused hard feelings in Russia. Nikolaj Nikolajevič Wrangel wrote about the collection in Starye gody several times before the sale. He did not hide his anger and disappointment about the upcoming auction and blamed those who had power and money for their intertia and being deaf to the pleas of specialists who wanted to keep the collection in Russia at any cost. Wrangel compared the auction to a number of previous Russian private collections that were sold abroad during previous decades.48 According to small notes published in Starye gody, the plan was to sell the greatest part of the collection in Paris, while the Russian art was intended to be exhibited and sold in St. Petersburg.49

In Stenman’s catalogue there are a few pieces from the Delaroff collection that had been published in the auction catalogue in Paris. Paintings left unsold were seemingly brought back and sold during the next few years in the capital of Russia, 50 but the more detailed course of events is unknown. However, Delaroff married twice, with children from both marriages, so it is possible that the realisation of his art collection had something to do with the distribution of the estate. However, the highlights of his collection ended up circulating once again within the ever-hungry art market.

40 From now on I use the established westernised form of the name Paul Delaroff instead of the precise transliteration Pavel Delarov.

41 Ismagulova, T. D. ‘Pavel Viktorovič Delarov – znatok živopisi i kollekcioner.’ Èrmitažnye čteniâ pamâti V. F. Leninsona-Lessinga. Sankt-Peterburg, 2003.

42 Ismagulova 2003, 20–21.43 Wrangel, N. N. Pavel Viktorovič Delarov. Starye gody mart 1913, 62.44 ‘Paul Delaroff, avec des moyens modestes, mais avec une énergie et un discernement incroyabls

[sic], parvint, en vingt ans, à réunir une galerie de plus de mille tableaux anciens.’ Quoted in de Ricci , Seymour: ‘La Curiosité: La vente Delaroff.’ Gil Blas 21 April 1914.

45 Wrangel, N. N. Pavel Viktorovič Delarov. Starye gody mart 1913, 62; de Ricci, Seymour: ‘La Curiosité: La vente Delaroff.’ Gil Blas 21 April 1914; Le Gaulois 16 April 1914.

46 Aleksander Benois (1870–1960) was a Russian artist, art critic, and important figure in the Mir iskusstva art movement.

47 ‘Это был невысокого роста, коренастого сложения человек с густой рыжей бородой и рыжим же клочком волос среди высокого лба, что придавало ему сходство с античным сатиром.’ Ismagulova 2003, 16. My translation.

48 Wrangel, N. N. Prodaža sobraniâ P. V. Delaroffa. Starye gody: noâbr 1913, 46–47.49 Starye gody: oktâbr 1913, 47–48; Starye gody: dekabr 1913, 58.50 Starye gody: mart 1915, 63.




11

Vanitas

The paintings from the Delaroff collection that are now in the Sinebrychoff Art Museum require more detailed research, which may open up new horizons in attribution, and dating. This is especially the case with a painting by an unknown artist, simply called Vanitas which currently raises a lot of questions. A Finnish collector, Jalo Sihtola, purchased it in Helsinki in 1936.51 He clearly doubted the then given attribution to the school of Antonio de Pereda.52 He asked about its provenance from the seller, the antique dealer Moses Scheinin: ‘I would be grateful if you could inform me about the origin of the painting that comes from the collection of Paul Delaroff. What was the fate of this collection? And how did you acquire it?’53 There is no reply to the letter in the archive. I have not been able to confirm the connection of the painting to the Delaroff collection during my internship, and more research on the object itself would be necessary.

51 Malmström, Synnöve. ‘Antonio da Pereda 1611–78: Vanitas-asetelma.’ In Insinöörin rakkaus: Ester ja Jalo Sihtolan lahjoituskokoelma. Helsinki: Ateneumin taidemuseo, 2003, 126.

52 Sihtola revealed his doubts by using a question mark: ‘Olen eilen vastaanottanut Teiltä ostamani espanjalaisen asetelman (Antonio de Peredan koulua?) (– –).’ Letter from Jalo Sihtola to M[oses] Scheinin 12 February 1936. File 2. Sihtola Archive. Archive Collections, FNG.

53 ‘Olisin kiitollinen jos voisitte minulle ilmoittaa lähemmin tämän maalauksen alkuperästä, joka on Paul Delaroffin kokoelmasta. Mikä oli tämän kokoelman kohtalo? Ja mitä kautta olette maalauksen hankkinut?’ Letter from Jalo Sihtola to M[oses] Scheinin 12 February 1936. File 2. Sihtola Archive. Archive Collections, FNG. My translation.

Master of the Vanitas Texts, Vanitas, mid-17th century, oil on canvas, 49cm x 64cmFinnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Jukka Romu




12

Portraits of men

There are two portraits from the Delaroff Collection in the Sinebrychoff Art Museum that Torsten Stjernschantz brought to Finland. The first is a portrait of a man, later attributed to Daniël van den Queborn (c. 1552–1602). Stjernschantz acquired the work in Russia, and probably sold it in Helsinki in, or some time after, 1919. The art historian Tancred Borenius mentioned the painting among several others in a review of Antica’s art exhibition in 1919.54 The painting must have ended up in a private collection, because it was donated by Leonard Baumgartner to the Finnish Art Society in 1934. Its attribution was unknown until the 1950s, when it was attributed according to the inscription Anno 1591 DQ on the reverse of the painting.55 What links the painting to the Delaroff collection is a piece of paper on the reverse that was attached during the auction of the Delaroff collection.56 The work is listed in the massive auction catalogue published in Paris in 1914 (nr. 88).57

The portrait of a man, attributed to Francisco Herrera the Elder (c. 1590–1656), is included in the same catalogue (nr. 18).58 It leads us to another Russian collector who owned the painting for a short while. Baron Nikolaj Egorovič Wrangel (1847–1923) must have bought it in, or after, 1914, when the Delaroff collection was for sale.59

54 Borenius, Tancred. ‘Antica’s konstutställning.’ Hufvudstadsbladet 4 September 1919.55 Van Luttervelt, R. ‘Portretten van Daniël van den Queeckborne.’ Oud-Holland vol. 67, 1952, 199.56 Based on the photograph there seems to be no Delaroff label or seal on the reverse of the painting

but because the painting was in an exhibition during my internship I could not examine the object itself.

57 Catalogue des tableaux anciens des écoles allemande, anglaise, espagnole, flamande, française, hollandaise, italienne des XVe, XVIe, XVIIe, XVIIIe siecles. Aquarelles, dessins, gouaches et miniatures anciens et modernes, terres cuites et marbres anciens, bronzes des XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siecles. Composant la tres importante collection de S. E. feu Paul Delaroff. Paris, 1914.

58 Catalogue des tableaux anciens des écoles.... 1914.59 Stjernschantz sold the painting to the Antell Delegation in December 1917.

Receipt of the payment 29 December 1917 to Antica Ab by the Antell Delegation. Antell Delegation. File 12. Archive of Parliament.

Daniël van den Queborn, Portrait of a man, 1591, oil on panel, 39cm x 28cmFinnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Jukka Romu

Francisco Herrera the Elder, Portrait of a man, undated, oil on canvas, 50cm x 40cmFinnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Jaakko Lukumaa

Seal used by Paul Delaroff on the stretcher of the Herrera painting, Portrait of a man (far right)Photo: Finnish National Gallery, Conservation Department / Ari Tanhuanpää

Label used by Nikolai Egorovič Wrangel on the stretcher of the Herrera painting, Portrait of a man (far right)Photo: Finnish National Gallery, Conservation Department / Ari Tanhuanpää




13

Old Masters for Potatoes

I shall now concentrate on Wrangel’s collection. Two of the paintings Stjernschantz certainly bought from Wrangel are in the collection of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, the first being the above-mentioned Herrera. Nikolaj Egorovič Wrangel is now best known for his memoires, From Serfdom to Bolshevism, published in Finnish in 1922.60 He was also the father of General Pëtr Nikolaevič Wrangel (1878–1928), who became a prominent figure as a commander in the Anti-Bolshevik White Army during the Civil War. A less well-known fact is that Wrangel’s younger son, the above-mentioned Nikolaj Nikolaevič Wrangel (1880–1915), was an art historian and shared his father’s passion for art and collecting.

The most important source concerning Wrangel’s enterprises in the art market that I have had access to, is his memoires. The tendentious character of this bittersweet autobiography is tangible. Wrangel shared the opinion of so many others in stating that the outdated autocracy should have been replaced by a parliamentary system that would have supported peaceful industrial, economic, and cultural development. Respectively, the October Revolution was in his opinion orchestrated by German-funded agents (Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev), and fuelled by the agitation of misguided intellectuals who knew Marx by heart but nothing about the real world. Peasants, according to Wrangel, were neither good, nor evil but easily misled, and thus required strong but enlightened patronage. Given this background, the memoires must be handled with a pinch of salt, while some points Wrangel made are relevant in the context of this article.

First, Wrangel wrote about how he began collecting in the 1870s. His collection seems to have consisted mainly of Old Masters, although he also had a taste for portraits, miniatures and antiques. He collected art without hunting down big names, as he himself stated.61 The collecting mania in St. Petersburg to which Wrangel referred, is part of the international current in taste that encouraged a wider range of social classes to collect and create eclectic interiors packed with art, antiquities, industrial reproductions, and decorative art.62 With a touch of gentle irony Wrangel described the second half of the 19th century, when there were a number of most peculiar art dealers running their obscure businesses in St. Petersburg, selling everything between heaven and earth to those who knew what to look for.63

The scale of Wrangel’s collection is unknown to me but there are 18 paintings from his collection in the exhibition catalogue Starye gody 1908.64 This considerable number of his paintings may well be related to his son Nikolaj Nilolaevič Wrangel, who played an active role in organising the exhibition but it nonetheless gives us an indication of the seriousness of Wrangel’s collecting. The Crucifixion, attributed to the workshop of Maerten de Vos (1532–1603), now in the collection of Sinebrychoff Art Museum, is painted on wood and forms the central part of an altarpiece.65 It was previously in Wrangel’s possession and it is described

60 The memoirs were quickly published in Swedish and Russian, and a couple of years later in French and English. The Russian manuscript has not survived, which makes the first Finnish edition unique, because it is based directly on the manuscript. Zejde, Alla. ‘V poiskah “vospominanij” barona Vragelâ’ (Preface and Commentary to Wrangel’s memoires). In N. E. Wrangel. Vospominaniâ ot krepostnogo prava do bol’ševikov. Rossiâ v memuarax. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2003, 5–7.

61 Wrangel, N. E. Vapaaherra N. E. Wrangelin muistelmia: Maaorjuudesta Bolshevismiin, I–II. Tekijän käsikirjoituksesta suomentanut T. T. Kaila. Porvoossa: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiön kirjapainossa, 1922, 234.

62 Watson, Janell. Literature and Material Culture from Balzac to Proust: The Collection and Consumption of Curiosities. Cambridge University Press, 2004, 60–63; Sopo, Elina. ‘Venäjän taiteen kukoistuskausi Aleksanteri II aikakaudella – Kolmannen keräilysukupolven heijastus Sinebrychoffin taidemuseon kokoelmissa’. In Museon arvoinen kokoelma! Sinebrychoffin kokoelmatoiminnan vaikuttavuus, eds. Anu Niemelä and Teijamari Jyrkkiö. Valtion taidemuseo 2012, 23.

63 Wrangel 1922, 227–245.64 Starye gody: Katalog vystavki kartin: noâbr-dekabr 1908.65 de Brün, Claudia. ‘Maerten de Vos.’ In Art & Atmosphere. Helsinki: Sinebrychoff Art Museum,

2014, 16.




14

in the French edition (1910)66 of the unrealised exhibition Starye gody.67 The attribution to Maerten de Vos is not given in the Russian catalogue of the same exhibition (1908, nr. 452), which probably means that before publishing the French edition the attribution was discussed among scholars who took part in organising the exhibition.68 Today the painting is considered to be from the workshop of de Vos.69 Stjernschantz sold the painting to the Antell Delegation in 1918.70

Wrangel wrote several times about how he made discoveries of notable paintings for ridiculously low prices. The trick was simple, he said. The emancipation of serfs shook the very basis of the subsistence of Russian aristocracy, and as a consequence, from the 1860s onward, countless art treasures poured out from desperately impoverished noble estates.71 Wrangel describes proudly a portrait in his possession attributed to no less than Tintoretto, which he managed to buy for a derisory sum. However, he had to sell it for potatoes during the time of food shortages in 1918, and the buyer was ‘a pleasant Finn’.72 There is no need for speculating

66 Schmidt, James. ‘Les Primitifs Septentrionaux (La Peinture Néerlandaise, Française et Allemande).’ In Les anciennes écoles de peinture dans les palais et collections privées russes. L’exposition organisée a St-Pétersbourg en 1909 par la revue d’art ancien ‘Staryé gody’. Bruxelles: Libraire Nationale d’art et d’histoire, 1910, 68.

67 de Brün 2014, 16.68 According to Bannikov the organisers of the exhibition made great efforts to examine paintings

in about 100 private collections to give them new attributions. Bannikov 1984, 286.69 de Brün 2014, 16.70 The purchase (14,000 Finnish marks) was completed in two parts, first on 2 November 1918,

and the second on 30 December 1918. Receipts for the payment to Antica Ab by the Antell Delegation. Antell Delegation. File 12. Archive of Parliament.

71 Wrangel 1922, 228–232; Roosevelt, Priscilla. Life on the Russian Country Estate: A Social and Cultural History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995, 320.

72 ‘Saadakseni rahaa perunoihin möin sen v. 1918 eräälle ystävälliselle suomalaiselle (– –).’ Wrangel 1922, 235–236.

Workshop of Maerten de Vos, The Crucifixion, undated, oil on panel, 159cm x 123cmFinnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Janne Mäkinen

Two labels on the reverse of The Crucifixion, from the workshop of Maerten de Vos: the first attached during the unrealised exhibition ‘Starye gody’ in 1908; the second from the 1914 exhibition in Petrograd, ‘Art of the Allied Nations: Exhibition organised by the Community of St. Eugenia for the benefit of the wounded soldiers in the exhibition room of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts’.Photo: Finnish National Gallery, Conservation Department / Maija Santala




15

on the identity of this particular Finn but Stjernschantz would not be a wild guess. Wrangel must have been referring to the Ateneum when he wrote: ‘I saw some of my paintings later in the museum in Helsinki and I was happy to know that at least a few of them ended up in good hands.’73

It would be fascinating to know how and when Stjernschantz made the rest of his acquisitions in Petrograd. Which other collectors or dealers did he do business with? The scale of his business is unknown to me, and it would be necessary to find archival material concerning his firm Antica to give answers to these questions. Gustaf Strengell wrote about Stjernschantz’s purchases in Hufvudstadsbladet.74 According to him, a great deal of the paintings Stjernschantz managed to buy in 1917 soon found their way into private, as well as public, collections – one was a painting by Jacopo Bassano.75 Strengell must have been referring to the Market Scene, now attributed to a follower of Bassano, which was added to the collection only a few weeks before the newspaper article was published.76

73 ‘Muutamat tauluistani näin sitten Helsingin museossa. Olen iloinen, että edes ne ovat joutuneet hyviin käsiin.’ Wrangel 1922, 160. My translation.

74 Strengell, Gustaf. ‘Gammal konst hos A.-B. Antica.’ Hufvudstadsbladet 16 October 1917.75 Strengell, Gustaf. ‘Gammal konst hos A.-B. Antica.’ Hufvudstadsbladet 16 October 1917.76 Receipt for the payment 29 September 1917 to Antica Ab by the Antell Delegation.

Antell Delegation. File 12. Archive of Parliament.

Follower of Jacopo Bassano, Market Scene, undated, oil on canvas, 60cm x 96cmFinnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Hannu Aaltonen




16

It is the Little Things – Epilogue

At first glance provenances may look like little more than a list of forgotten names or a puzzle with too many missing pieces. But there is always a person behind a name, and where there is a person, there is a story. Provenances may sometimes be a key to these stories, and innocent looking acquisition dates may reveal a great deal about history, politics, and human tragedy.

What I have encountered during my research internship is the unruly nature of the stories of the Old Masters. With all the copiers, and forgers on their tail, these works are often confusing, typically being intertwined with unsubstantiated attributions, hastily interpreted pictorial motives, harsh restorations, deficient provenances and widely scattered sources. Scepticism about the authenticity of paintings is always lurking at the periphery of one’s mind. Is this particular work of art worth all the time and pain I am giving to it? One may easily find oneself tracking wrong traces, making hasty conclusions and cherishing high hopes. In order to drive away melancholic thoughts I tried to find a useful strategy, which I summarise as a capability to enjoy the little things. One has to celebrate the smallest possible accomplishment; just a line in a letter, or a faded label on a stretcher. This is exactly what I have done, and that is why I have enjoyed the demanding company of Old Masters.

This article is published as a result of a three-month research internship at the Finnish National Gallery, during which Kersti Tainio studied material in the Art and Archive Collections of the Finnish National Gallery

Workshop of Maerten de Vos, detail from The Crucifixion, undatedFinnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Janne Mäkinen


Old Masters Meet Russian Revolutions - WordPress.com...Old Masters Meet Russian Revolutions Kersti...

Documents

Transcript of Old Masters Meet Russian Revolutions - WordPress.com...Old Masters Meet Russian Revolutions Kersti...